Swallow Hill Music is turning an RV into a mobile music studio, open to everyone

An anonymous donor gave Swallow Hill Music a 1976 chrome RV, and the organization plans to turn it into mobile music community. After extensive engine work, an interior refurbishment and an external paint job, the vehicle will travel to festivals, shows and events, where it will let people play instruments and record songs. The project is called Music On the Road. "The sky is the limit," says Swallow Hill project and publicity manager Lindsey Taylor. "[The RV] has four wheels, so wherever it can go, the music can go too."

The vehicle will be loaded up with instruments like banjos, mandolins, ukuleles and guitars. Once it reaches a destination, people of all ages and skill levels will be invited to play. They can then record their own songs on the spot with the in-RV recording studio. Swallow Hill Music staff will then e-mail the musician his or her song.

"It gives people an opportunity to feel what it's like to have a track that they've made and created, to share and have," Taylor says. She says they hope to use the RV to increase musical knowledge and involvement in the community.

An artist rendering of the refurbished RV.

courtesy of Swallow Hill Music

In an artist rendering of the finished vehicle, brightly painted designs pair black music notes and cartoon-looking musical instruments with a sign pointing inside the circular window on the rounded door reading "music inside".

But it's a long way from just being road-worthy, much less holding a mobile studio. It will need engine work, an overhaul inside and several modifications to the exterior. Swallow Hill estimates the whole thing will require $10,000, which they hope to raise via crowd-sourced donations by June 13.

The organization operates on donations from private donors and grant money from the likes of the Scientific and Cultural facilities district. They are turning to crowd funding for this particular project because it exists outside their regular operation. So far, they're at two-percent of their goal.